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Still In Line

If you read my column last week, you know that it was all about my isolated experiences of waiting in lines. Seems I touched a nerve, as I received letters, email and calls from readers who have had similar experiences, or worse.

So, on second thought, I am not alone when it comes to “line dancing.”

Well, this past week I experienced the “mother” of all line-waiting experiences. That’s right, I had to renew my driver’s license at the city DMV. In case you don’t know, there is much preparation you need to make before even stepping through the door. Starting this year, you must produce documentation as if you were joining the FBI or running for president of the United States.

You have to have your Social Security card, passport, birth certificate, and if you changed your name through marriage, your marriage license. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have those documents readily available to me without a major search of my home. Trying to remember where I put all that stuff totally frustrated me, but eventually I was able to find it.

I figured everyone would have a difficult time locating their individual documents, so the DMV would be literally empty when I went to renew. I walked straight up to the document preview desk and was told I was good to go – go wait in line, that is. For behind that desk was the serpentine line maze, and there were at least 50 people standing in it. It wasn’t until I was about the eighth person from the back of the line that I realized that although there were eight licensing stations, only two were manned with clerks. I was about halfway through the line and an hour had passed. That meant I had at least another hour to wait before I could be processed.

Don’t get me wrong, all the people working there are really nice, professional and efficient. But the system they have going really sucks. This got me to thinking, and I’m not taking a stand either way, but if this is how they handle a small detail like driver’s license renewal, what the heck is going to happen if we put in rail?